Today is the day after Christmas and I just recieved the brand new 80 gig ipod. Once I got it I started uploaded my songs and everything worked fine. I even unplugged it a couple times throughout the day to put more on it, however, all of a sudden I plugged it back in and windows now says that "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it." There was literally a 10 minute gap between it working and not working.

I plugged in my dad's ipod and my brother's ipod. Same thing. I plugged in my flash disk drive and the computer read that. I went to a friend's house and my ipod works on his computer so it is clear to me that the problem is in the computer, and it is specifically involving the USB reading the ipod.

I've reinstalled itunes many many times, and have plugged it into every USB port on the computer. Restarted the ipod many times, and restarted the computer...many times. I'm thinking that reformatting the ipod is not necessary since it works on other computers.

I am having the exact exact exact same problem. I even went to the Apple store today and they replaced my 30 GB ipod with a new one, hoping it would solve the problem. Nope. It recognized it about one out of every 10 attempts. The new one has yet to be recognized, and if it is, it says it's corrupt. When I try to restore it, it won't for an "unknown error (1418)".

I've visited many forums on many sites, and have tried to modify the registry (it wouldn't let me delete what the microsoft site suggested). Another site had a guy who said he purchased a new firewire/usb 2.0 cord and his computer now detects the ipod.

I also purchased a new flash drive today and get the same USB not recognized error.

Sometimes the drivers get screwy on a particular port. When you see that error message, click on the balloon and it will highlight the problem port. Go into that port and uninstall the drivers. Then unplug your ipod, restart your PC, and try again. Good luck.

I AM RESOLVED! HALLALUJAH! I just talked to apple support and they suggested I remove all other USB cords from my computer. I did that and VOILA everything is working perfectly. I've now re-hooked all my cords and all is well! Gosh, I hope this helps others. I've spent probably about 4 hours a day for 2 weeks on this issue! Thanks for all those who responded!

I'm having a very similar problem with a Dell laptop and XP. When my USB external hard drive is connected, iTunes does not recognize my 60Gig iPod. When I disconnect my hard drive and reconnect the iPod, iTunes finds the iPod without a problem. This kind of sucks because I bought the external drive for all of my iPod music. I have no other USB devices connected.

I created another user profile and set it up for my Shuffle. iTunes won't recognize the Shuffle either when the external drive is connected, but when the external drive is disconnected, iTunes finds the iPod without a problem.

Your problem is probably that the iPod and external hard disk are being assigned the same drive letter.

Click on "My Computer" when one or the other is connected and see what drive letter is being assigned.

You can tell Windows to assign your iPod a different drive letter. Right click MY COMPUTER, then select MANAGE.

From the pop up window, select DISK MANAGEMENT from the left side. Then, select your iPod from the right side, right-click and select CHANGE DRIVE LETTER AND PATHS.

The other possibility is a USB power problem if your external drive is USB powered rather than powered by a wall wart. iPods like to have the full power from a USB port. Hubs and multiple high power USB devices can lead to problems.